I was gratified to read the article by Kasim Hafeez, a former anti-
Semite who had become a Zionist. I was particularly gratified to
learn that my book, The Case for Israel, played a role in his
conversion from irrational hatred to support based on his own
observations of the reality of Israel.

Hafeez’s article came at a time when I was becoming skeptical of my
own ability, and that of others who try to make the civil liberties
case for Israel, to influence public opinion. The hatred for Israel
in parts of Europe and on many university campuses has become so
irrational that no evidence, regardless of how indisputable and
powerful it may be, seems to be able to change closed minds hardened
by years of unremitting falsehoods. These falsehoods take on an aura
of undeserved credibility, particularly when espoused by people who
identify themselves as Jewish or Israeli (or even formerly Jewish or
formally Israeli.)

But whenever I get discouraged, I recall an incident several years
ago at the University of California at Irvine, which is a hotbed of
anti-Israel hate speech. This is the very same campus where radical
Islamic students tried to prevent Israel’s moderate ambassador,
Professor Michael Oren, from speaking.

Use extremism against radicals

About a year before that incident, I spoke to a full audience of
students that included some of the same radicals that tried to shut
Oren down. About 100 of them sat to my right. Another 100 or so
students, wearing pro-Israel shirts and kipot, sat to my left.
Several hundred additional students were in the middle - both
literally and ideologically. I know that because I asked for a show
of hands before I began my remarks.

I first asked for students to raise their hands if they generally
support Israel. All the students to my left and several in the middle
raised their hands. I then asked how many students supported the
Palestinian side. All the students to my right and several in the
middle raised their hands. I then posed the following question to the
pro-Israel group: “How many of you would support a Palestinian state
living in peace and without terrorism next to Israel?” Every single
pro-Israel hand immediately went up. I then asked how many on the pro-
Palestine side would accept a Jewish state within the 1967 borders,
with no settlements on territory claimed by the Palestinians. There
was some mumbling and brief conversation among the people to my
right, but not a single hand was raised.

The debate was essentially over, as everyone in the middle now
recognized that this was not a conflict between pro-Israel and pro-
Palestine groups, but rather, a conflict between those who would
accept a two-state solution and those who would reject any Jewish
state anywhere in the Middle East. The pro-Israel view had prevailed
because I was able to use the extremism of the anti-Israel group to
demonstrate the ugly truth about Israel’s enemies to the large group
of students in the middle with open minds.

I have now used this heuristic repeatedly on college campuses, and
with considerable success. The lesson, I believe, is not to try to
persuade irrational anti-Israel extremists, but rather, to use their
extremism - which often includes anti-American and anti-Western
extremism - against them and in favor of a reasonable and centrist
pro-Israel position.

The power of truth

The reality is that there are many open-minded people, even in Europe
and on university campuses. Their voices are often drowned out by the
much more vocal anti-Israel extremists. I saw this last year when I
was invited to Norway by a Christian Zionist group. The group offered
me, as a speaker, to the law faculties of Norway’s three major
universities. All three universities refused to invite me to speak,
even though my appearance would cost them nothing. One of them said I
would be invited, but only if I did not speak about Israel.

When students at the universities heard of the faculties’ refusal to
invite me, the students themselves asked me to appear. I spoke to
packed houses at all three universities, and was told afterwards that
I had changed the minds of many students who had never before heard
the centrist kind of liberal case for Israel.